Honestly, they wet a little far with that. Like with the handcuffs and charges/detention center.
The principle over reacted, charges no, suspension maybe, but you have to remember he has the responsibility of the whole school in his hands. This is also depending on the schools policy.
Now here are the what ifs?
How real did the gun look?
what if the gun was real?
what if the gun was loaded?
It's human nature for a child to want to play with a gun, there is an allure that all young boys (some parents won't admit it), to want to play with a gun.
A prime example of this is in one of the Netflix commercials where the boy is trying to get the movie cowboys to act. What is the words he says to his dad when they are fist fighting? "Don't they know they have guns?", this may have been a commercial but I guarentee it most children that age think the same. The gun is the way to solve problems.
I remember as a kid, I didn't have a worry about being swarmed, or have a knife, gun, or pepper spray pulled on me when you had a problems with another schoolmate. You set a time to have a fist fight at 3:00 and after someone got hit once or twice, it ended. Now, after a fight, you get jumped days later by the coward with a weapon, this actually happend to a canreefers son that wasn't even involved but just a bystander.
Some toy guns look so realistic now a days, that in a low light situation an expert or police office cannot tell the difference. Using a toy gun in a crime, gets you charges the same as using the REAL thing.
http://www.google.ca/search?q=airsof...w=1659&bih=873
to the uninformed eye, shor of the bright orange barrel end, most people can't tell the difference.
Now what is pathetic, is when the TSA confiscated a toy gun from a child at security screening, where it was an accessory to a 4" action figure. The replica m16 was 2" long, but the TSA agent said he had to take it as it looked real eventhough it was 1/20 scale.
Ken - BWA